Our testing capacity is back on track – Prof. Ampofo

The Coordinator of Ghana’s COVID-19 testing programme, Professor William Ampofo, has indicated that the country’s testing capacity is back to full throttle after taking delivery of laboratory equipment and supplies.

Speaking at the Ministry of Information briefing in Accra on Sunday, Prof. Ampofo disclosed that all ten of the country’s testing centers have taken delivery of bulk testing equipment, reagents and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).

“I am glad to report that as I mentioned in the previous briefing the ten existing testing sites have received enough supplies to enhance testing at these sites and distribution has already been done. We have procured examination gloves, nucleic acid, isolation kits and the PCR detention kits.

While these were coming into the country, we also did an emergency procurement through the Ghana Health Service supported by the COVID Trust and those items also arrived last week. These are very important items especially for Noguchi and KCCR because they enable us to do automated extraction of the nucleic acid and this will help us get through the backlog which is the point of interest for some of us.”

According to him government has distributed close to 50,000 PCR kits and close to 30,000 nucleic acid extraction kits which form the basis for PCR testing to the various testing centers in the country. This he said there are plans to replenish the various centers with these kits so they do not go out of stock.

He also mentioned that aside government’s plan to replenish the testing centers so they do not run dry, there is a detailed plan to strengthen the country’s PCR testing capacity using the GeneXpert platforms and with the identification of 6 new testing sites by government and the coming on stream of about 40,000 testing kits, the various testing sites will be able to work around the clock to make sure samples are tested as and when they are received.

The covid testing programme suffered some glitches when labs across the country temporarily ran shot of logistics. The replenishment announced 2 weeks ago is aimed at getting the programme back on full scale.